The salient advantage of wireless telecommunications over wireline telecommunications is that the user of the wireless terminal is afforded the opportunity to use the terminal anywhere. On the other hand, the salient disadvantage of wireless telecommunications lies in that fact that because the terminal is mobile, an interested party might not be able to readily ascertain its location.
Such interested parties might include both the user of the wireless terminal and a remote party. There are a variety of reasons why the user of a wireless terminal might be interested in knowing his or her location. For example, the user might be interested in telling a remote party where he or she is or, alternatively, the user might seek advice regarding navigation.
In addition, there are a variety of reasons why a remote party might be interested in knowing the location of the terminal. For example, the recipient of an E 9-1-1 emergency call might be interested in knowing the location of the terminal so that emergency services can be dispatched to that location.
There are many techniques in the prior art for estimating the location of a wireless terminal and each has it advantages and disadvantages. None of these techniques generate perfect estimates, however, and so the need for techniques that are more accurate always exists.